NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday said it would confer
constitutional status on the proposed Lokpal, embracing the idea mooted
by Rahul Gandhi.

"We are working on a very strong Lokpal bill. A
Lokpal bill that will come with a constitutional amendment. That
amendment will give the Lokpal the status of a constitutional
authority," law minister Salman Khurshid told PTI on Tuesday.

Khurshid, who gave Rahul the credit for the move, further said the Lokpal would be "more powerful than the Election Commission", "will have far greater powers" as well as a profile and stature that is "much higher".

The new thinking on Lokpal seems to be designed to outmanoeuvre civil
society activists as well as political opponents. It comes at a time
when the Hazare campaign has upped the ante again, and Khurshid's
disclosure coincided with the inauguration of L K Advani's rath yatra
against graft.

The version proposed by the government is more radical than what civil society activists had asked forsource: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com